Thomas Paine citations
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Thomas Paine, né le 29 janvier 1737 à Thetford en Grande-Bretagne et mort le 8 juin 1809 à New York aux États-Unis, est un intellectuel, pamphlétaire, révolutionnaire britannique, américain et français. Il est connu pour son engagement durant la révolution américaine en faveur de l'indépendance des treize colonies britanniques en Amérique du Nord. Il a exposé ses positions dans un célèbre pamphlet intitulé Le Sens commun, publié quelques mois avant la signature de la Déclaration d’indépendance américaine en 1776.

Ses écrits, parmi lesquels figure Rights of Man , ont également exercé une grande influence sur les acteurs de la Révolution française : il est élu député à l’assemblée nationale en 1792. Considéré par les Montagnards comme un allié des Girondins, il est progressivement mis à l’écart, notamment par Robespierre, puis emprisonné en décembre 1793.

Après la Terreur, il est relâché et connaît un certain succès grâce à son livre Le Siècle de la raison qui analyse le christianisme et milite en faveur du déisme. Dans Agrarian Justice , il analyse les origines du droit de propriété et introduit le concept de revenu de base ou universel, proche du revenu minimum.

Thomas Paine resta en France jusqu’en 1802, période pendant laquelle il critique l’ascension de Napoléon Bonaparte, qualifiant le Premier consul de « charlatan le plus parfait qui eût jamais existé ». Sur l’invitation du président Thomas Jefferson, il revient aux États-Unis où il meurt en 1809 à 72 ans. Wikipedia

✵ 9. février 1737 – 8. juin 1809 • Autres noms Пейн Томас

Thomas Paine photo

Thomas Paine: 264 citations1 J'aime

Thomas Paine Citations

“J'ai toujours vigoureusement défendu le droit de chaque homme à sa propre opinion, aussi différente qu'elle puisse être de la mienne. Celui qui refuse à un autre ce droit se rend lui-même esclave de son opinion présente, car il se prive du droit d'en changer… L'infidélité ne consiste pas à croire ou à ne pas croire, mais à affirmer croire ce que l'on ne croit pas. Il est impossible d'évaluer les dégâts moraux que le mensonge à soi-même provoque dans une société.”

), 1793

“De toutes les tyrannies qui frappent l’humanité, la pire est la tyrannie en matière de religion.”

), 1793

Thomas Paine: Citations en anglais

“The world has seen this folly fall, and it has fallen by being laughed at, and the farce of titles will follow its fate. The patriots of France have discovered in good time that rank and dignity in society must take a new ground. The old one has fallen through. It must now take the substantial ground of character, instead of the chimerical ground of titles; and they have brought their titles to the altar, and made of them a burnt-offering to Reason.”

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Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

“The Theophilanthropists believe in the existence of God, and the immortality of the soul.”

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1790s, Discourse to the Theophilanthropists (1798)

“The word of God is the creation we behold and it is in this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man.”

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Thomas Paine livre The Age of Reason

1790s, The Age of Reason, Part I (1794)

“What more does man want to know than that the hand or power that made these things is divine, is omnipotent? Let him believe this with the force it is impossible to repel, if he permits his reason to act, and his rule of moral life will follow of course.”

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Thomas Paine livre The Age of Reason

1790s, The Age of Reason, Part I (1794)

“Giving then to matter all the properties which philosophy knows it has, or all that atheism ascribes to it, and can prove, and even supposing matter to be eternal, it will not account for the system of the universe or of the solar system, because it will not account for motion, and it is motion that preserves it. When, therefore, we discover a circumstance of such immense importance, that without it the universe could not exist, and for which neither matter, nor any, nor all, the properties of matter can account, we are by necessity forced into the rational and comfortable belief of the existence of a cause superior to matter, and that cause man calls, God.”

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1790s, Discourse to the Theophilanthropists (1798)

“There are, in every country, some magnificent charities established by individuals. It is, however, but little that any individual can do, when the whole extent of the misery to be relieved is considered. He may satisfy his conscience, but not his heart. He may give all that he has, and that all will relieve but little. It is only by organizing civilization upon such principles as to act like a system of pulleys, that the whole weight of misery can be removed.”

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1790s, Agrarian Justice (1797)

“We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in.”

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The Crisis No. IV.
1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)

“Certainly one may, with as much reason and decency, plead for murder, robbery, lewdness, and barbarity, as for this practice: They are not more contrary to the natural dictates of Conscience, and feelings of Humanity; nay, they are all comprehended in it.”

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1770s, African Slavery in America (March 1775)

“I […] could not avoid reflecting how wretched was the condition of a disrespected man.”

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Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

“The election that followed, was not a contested election, but an animated one. The candidates were not men, but principles. Societies were formed in Paris, and committees of correspondence and communication established throughout the nation, for the purpose of enlightening the people, and explaining to them the principles of civil government; and so orderly was the election conducted, that it did not give rise even to the rumor of tumult.”

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Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

“If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenue and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute.”

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Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 2.2 Introduction
1790s, Rights of Man, Part 2 (1792)

“The age of ignorance commenced with the Christian system.”

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Thomas Paine livre The Age of Reason

Source: 1790s, The Age of Reason, Part I (1794), Chapter XII

“As much in vain, perhaps, will they search ancient history for examples of the modern Slave-Trade. Too many nations enslaved the prisoners they took in war. But to go to nations with whom there is no war, who have no way provoked, without farther design of conquest, purely to catch inoffensive people, like wild beasts, for slaves, is an hight of outrage against Humanity and Justice, that seems left by Heathen nations to be practised by pretended Christians. How shameful are all attempts to colour and excuse it!”

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1770s, African Slavery in America (March 1775)

“Titles are but nick-names, and every nickname is a title. The thing is perfectly harmless in itself, but it marks a sort of foppery in the human character, which degrades it. It reduces man into the diminutive of man in things which are great, and the counterfeit of women in things which are little. It talks about its fine blue ribbon like a girl, and shows its new garter like a child. A certain writer, of some antiquity, says: "When I was a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things."”

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Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

“Let me have none of your Popish stuff! Get away with you, good morning.”

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Last words (June 1809), as quoted in The Fortnightly https://books.google.com/books?id=aCYzAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA398&lpg=PA398&dq=%22Let+me+have+none+of+your+Popish+stuff%22&source=bl&ots=D0WFax-dxc&sig=Ai90qOuOHYdsoVtR1tIIP_pwgUM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiii9momsrLAhWlmoMKHVxUBS0Q6AEIJDAE#v=onepage&q=%22Let%20me%20have%20none%20of%20your%20Popish%20stuff%22&f=false, Volume 25; Volume 31, p. 398 <br class="br">1800s

“When the qualification to vote is regulated by years, it is placed on the firmest possible ground, because the qualification is such as nothing but dying before the time can take away; and the equality of Rights, as a principle, is recognized in the act of regulating the exercise. But when Rights are placed upon, or made dependent upon property, they are on the most precarious of all tenures. "Riches make themselves wings, and fly away," and the rights fly with them; and thus they become lost to the man when they would be of most value.”

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1790s, Letter to the Addressers (1792)

“Our Traders in MEN (an unnatural commodity!) must know the wickedness of that SLAVE-TRADE, if they attend to reasoning, or the dictates of their own hearts; and such as shun and stiffle all these, wilfully sacrifice Conscience, and the character of integrity to that golden Idol.”

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1770s, African Slavery in America (March 1775)

“Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.”

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1770s, Common Sense (1776)

“That which is now called natural philosophy, embracing the whole circle of science, of which astronomy occupies the chief place, is the study of the works of God, and of the power and wisdom of God in his works, and is the true theology.”

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Thomas Paine livre The Age of Reason

1790s, The Age of Reason, Part I (1794)

“With respect to what are called denominations of religion, if every one is left to judge of its own religion, there is no such thing as a religion that is wrong; but if they are to judge of each other's religion, there is no such thing as a religion that is right; and therefore all the world is right, or all the world is wrong. But with respect to religion itself, without regard to names, and as directing itself from the universal family of mankind to the Divine object of all adoration, it is man bringing to his Maker the fruits of his heart; and though those fruits may differ from each other like the fruits of the earth, the grateful tribute of every one is accepted.”

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Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

“The artificial noble shrinks into a dwarf before the noble of nature; and in the few instances (for there are some in all countries) in whom nature, as by a miracle, has survived in aristocracy, those men despise it.”

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Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

“The greatest characters the world have known have arisen on the democratic floor. Aristocracy has not been able to keep a proportionate pace with democracy.”

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Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

“Mingling religion with politics may be disavowed and reprobated by every inhabitant of America.”

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1770s, Common Sense (1776)

“America could carry on a two years' war by the confiscation of the property of disaffected persons, and be made happy by their expulsion. Say not that this is revenge, call it rather the soft resentment of a suffering people, who, having no object in view but the good of all, have staked their own all upon a seemingly doubtful event. Yet it is folly to argue against determined hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice.”

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The Crisis No. I.
1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)

“When I contemplate the natural dignity of man, when I feel (for Nature has not been kind enough to me to blunt my feelings) for the honour and happiness of its character, I become irritated at the attempt to govern mankind by force and fraud, as if they were all knaves and fools, and can scarcely avoid disgust at those who are thus imposed upon.”

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Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

“For what is the amount of all his prayers but an attempt to make the Almighty change his mind, and act otherwise than he does? It is as if he were to say: Thou knowest not so well as I.”

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Thomas Paine livre The Age of Reason

1790s, The Age of Reason, Part I (1794)

“There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required.”

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1770s, Common Sense (1776)

“Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them. Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats; and in the fourteenth [sic (actually the fifteenth)] century the whole English army, after ravaging the kingdom of France, was driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc. Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment! Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. Many a disguised Tory has lately shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware.”

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The Crisis No. I.
1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)

“The example of the Jews, in many things, may not be imitated by us; they had not only orders to cut off several nations altogether, but if they were obliged to war with others, and conquered them, to cut off every male; they were suffered to use polygamy and divorces, and other things utterly unlawful to us under clearer light.”

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1770s, African Slavery in America (March 1775)

“Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interest, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.”

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1770s, Common Sense (1776)

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